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Abstract:

A housing for a computer system includes at least one first and one
second housing opening, at least one first housing cover and one second
housing cover, wherein the first housing opening can be closed by the
first housing cover and the second housing opening can be closed by the
second housing cover, and a switching element having a switching contact,
wherein the switching element is arranged such that, both when opening
the first housing cover and when opening the second housing cover, the
switching contact is triggered to indicate that the housing has been
opened.

Claims:

1. A housing for a computer system comprising: at least one first and one
second housing opening, at least one first housing cover and one second
housing cover, where the first housing opening can be closed by the first
housing cover and the second housing opening can be closed by the second
housing cover, and a switching element having a switching contact,
wherein the switching element is arranged such that, both when opening
the first housing cover and when opening the second housing cover, the
switching contact is triggered to indicate that the housing has been
opened.

2. The housing according to claim 1, wherein a switch housing of the
switching element is mounted such that it can move, part of the first
housing cover acting on the switching contact and part of the second
housing cover acting on the switch housing, so that a relative movement
between the switching contact and the switch housing is effected both
when opening the first housing cover and when opening the second housing
cover.

3. The housing according to claim 2, wherein the switch housing is
rotatably mounted on a rocker in a region between the first and the
second housing opening.

4. The housing according to claim 3, wherein a spring element acts on the
rocker, which spring element exerts a force toward the second housing
cover.

5. The housing according to claim 1, wherein the first housing cover is a
flap arranged on a front side of the housing to close one or more drives
accessible from the front side.

6. The housing according to claim 1, wherein the second housing cover
forms a removable side wall of the housing to close an access to internal
components of the computer system.

7. An arrangement comprising at least one computer to be monitored
arranged in the housing according to claim 1, and at least one monitoring
device connected to the switching element to provide a control signal
and, on the basis of the control signal, indicates whether at least one
of the two housing covers has been opened.

8. The arrangement according to claim 7, wherein the monitoring device
comprises a system monitoring module.

9. The housing according to claim 2, wherein the first housing cover is a
flap arranged on a front side of the housing to close one or more drives
accessible from the front side.

10. The housing according to claim 3, wherein the first housing cover is
a flap arranged on a front side of the housing to close one or more
drives accessible from the front side.

11. The housing according to claim 4, wherein the first housing cover is
a flap arranged on a front side of the housing to close one or more
drives accessible from the front side.

12. The housing according to claim 2, wherein the second housing cover
forms a removable side wall of the housing to close an access to internal
components of the computer system.

13. The housing according to claim 3, wherein the second housing cover
forms a removable side wall of the housing to close an access to internal
components of the computer system.

14. The housing according to claim 4, wherein the second housing cover
forms a removable side wall of the housing to close an access to internal
components of the computer system.

15. The housing according to claim 5, wherein the second housing cover
forms a removable side wall of the housing to close an access to internal
components of the computer system.

16. An arrangement comprising at least one computer to be monitored
arranged in the housing according to claim 2, and at least one monitoring
device connected to the switching element to provide a control signal
and, on the basis of the control signal, indicates whether at least one
of the two housing covers has been opened.

17. An arrangement comprising at least one computer to be monitored
arranged in the housing according to claim 3, and at least one monitoring
device connected to the switching element to provide a control signal
and, on the basis of the control signal, indicates whether at least one
of the two housing covers has been opened.

18. An arrangement comprising at least one computer to be monitored
arranged in the housing according to claim 4, and at least one monitoring
device connected to the switching element to provide a control signal
and, on the basis of the control signal, indicates whether at least one
of the two housing covers has been opened.

19. An arrangement comprising at least one computer to be monitored
arranged in the housing according to claim 5, and at least one monitoring
device connected to the switching element to provide a control signal
and, on the basis of the control signal, indicates whether at least one
of the two housing covers has been opened.

20. An arrangement comprising at least one computer to be monitored
arranged in the housing according to claim 6, and at least one monitoring
device connected to the switching element to provide a control signal
and, on the basis of the control signal, indicates whether at least one
of the two housing covers has been opened.

Description:

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] This disclosure relates to a housing for a computer system, having
at least one first and one second housing opening, where the first
housing opening can be closed by a first housing cover and the second
housing opening can be closed by a second housing cover. The disclosure
further relates to the use of such a housing in an arrangement comprising
at least one computer to be monitored and at least one monitoring device.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Housings for a computer system having at least a first and a second
housing opening are widely known. For example, DE 102009019517 discloses
a housing for an electronic device which has a lock, a first locking
mechanism and a second locking mechanism. The locking mechanisms are
designed and positively coupled to lock and unlock different housing
elements, wherein they interact with the lock.

[0003] Such housings are used, for example, for what are known as server
computers, which comprise a plurality of powerful components, for
example, processors and storage drives. To permit a flexible arrangement
of a multiplicity of components, relatively large-volume tower housings,
as they are known, are often used for this purpose. Access to the
individual components arranged in the housing is necessary only
relatively infrequently. Therefore, these are currently arranged behind
housing covers in the form of flap walls or housing walls.

[0004] In particular, high-quality computer housings permit monitoring as
to whether a housing has been closed properly. For this purpose, a
switching contact for a housing opening is generally provided, which
registers the state of a housing cover.

[0005] There is thus a need for a particularly simply constructed housing
for a computer system having at least two closable housing openings.
Furthermore, it could be helpful to provide a possible way of monitoring
an opening state of a plurality of housing covers with little expenditure
on components.

SUMMARY

[0006] We provide a housing for a computer system including at least one
first and one second housing opening, at least one first housing cover
and one second housing cover, where the first housing opening can be
closed by the first housing cover and the second housing opening can be
closed by the second housing cover, and a switching element having a
switching contact, wherein the switching element is arranged such that,
both when opening the first housing cover and when opening the second
housing cover, the switching contact is triggered to indicate that the
housing has been opened.

[0007] We also provide an arrangement including at least one computer to
be monitored arranged in the housing, and at least one monitoring device
connected to the switching element to provide a control signal and, on
the basis of the control signal, indicates whether at least one of the
two housing covers has been opened.

[0032] We provide a housing for a computer system having at least one
first and one second housing opening, where the first housing opening can
be closed by a first housing cover and the second housing opening can be
closed by a second housing cover. The housing is characterized in that a
switching element having a switching contact is provided, wherein the
switching element is arranged such that, both when opening the first
housing cover and when opening the second housing cover, the switching
contact is triggered to indicate that the computer housing has been
opened. As a result of using a single switching element to monitor the
opening of two different housing covers, the number of necessary
switching elements for monitoring can be reduced.

[0033] A switch housing of the switching element may be mounted such that
it can move, part of the first housing cover acting on the switching
contact and part of the second housing cover acting on the switch housing
so that a relative movement between the switching contact and the switch
housing is effected both as a result of opening the first housing cover
and as a result of opening the second housing cover.

[0034] The switch housing may be rotatably mounted on a rocker in the
region between the first and the second housing opening. An arrangement
of this type permits a simple mechanical transfer of a movement of the
first housing cover and a movement of the second housing cover to trigger
the common switching contact.

[0035] Housings of this type are suitable in particular for use in an
arrangement comprising at least one computer to be monitored, which is
arranged in the housing, and at least one monitoring device, which is
connected to the switching element to provide a control signal and is
designed, on the basis of the control signal, to indicate whether at
least one of the two housing covers has been opened. In an arrangement of
this type, a single control signal is sufficient to monitor the computer
or the opening state of the housing covers of the latter. This is
advantageous in particular when monitoring a multiplicity of different
computers.

[0036] Further advantages are described in the following extensive
description of an example.

[0037]FIG. 1 shows a front view of a housing 1 for a server computer. In
the example, the housing 1 is, for example, what is known as a tower
housing. The housing 1 has a front side 2 and a removable side wall 3.

[0038] The front side 2 comprises a lower region 4 and an upper region 5.
The lower region 4 has, for example, a housing cover with ventilation
openings to take in or blow out cooling air. The upper region 5 in the
example comprises a flap 6, behind which a plurality of storage drives
not visible in FIG. 1, for example, hard drives, CD or DVD drives are
arranged. Optionally, the drives are configured to be removable and
protected by the flap 6. The flap 6 can be closed by a lock 7. The side
wall 3 can be unlocked by a handle element 8 and then taken off from the
housing 1. After the side wall 3 has been taken off, access can be gained
to internal components of the server computer such as, for example,
ventilation modules arranged therein, memory modules, processors or power
supply units. In one configuration, the lock 7 additionally acts on the
handle element 8 and locks the latter.

[0039] In FIG. 2, an inner view of the housing 1 onto the front side 2 and
the side wall 3 is shown. Visible therein, inter alia, is a closure
element 9 coupled to the lock 7 and locks the flap 6 and the side wall 3.
It can additionally be seen that, in a region of a housing edge between
the flap 6 and the side wall 3, there is arranged a switching element 10.
The switching element 10 is used to monitor an opening state of the
housing openings of the housing 1 and will be described in more detail
below with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

[0040]FIG. 3 shows the switching element 10 in a first state. In the
first state, both the flap 6 and the side wall 3 of the housing 1 are
closed.

[0041]FIG. 3 reveals that both the side wall 3 and the flap 6 each have a
switching lug 11 and 12, respectively, which act on the switching element
10. In particular, the switching lug 12 of the flap 6 presses through an
opening 13 in a housing wall 14 onto a switching contact 15, for example,
a switching lever that activates a microswitch that is pressed down in
the first state. The switching lug 11 of the side wall 3 acts on a stop
of a rocker 16 on which a switch housing 17 of the switching element 10
is mounted. The rocker 16 is rotatably mounted in relation to the housing
wall 14 by an axis of rotation 18. Between the rocker 16 and the housing
wall 14 in the example illustrated in FIG. 3 there is arranged a spring
19 which exerts a force on the rocker 16, with which the latter is
pressed away from the housing wall 14.

[0042]FIG. 4 shows the switching element 10 in a second state. In the
second state, the flap 6 with which, for example, the drives of the
computer system are covered has been opened.

[0043] In the state illustrated, the switching element 10 switches, for
example, as a result of the fact that the lever of the switching contact
15 emerges toward the front through the opening 13 of the housing wall
14. If the switching element used is, for example, what is known as a
normally open contact which makes a circuit when the switching contact 15
is pressed down, an electrical signal is therefore interrupted by the
switching element 10 when the flap 6 is opened. Of course, conversely, a
normally closed contact can also be used as switching element 10.

[0044] In FIG. 5, the switching element 10 is shown in a third state. In
the third state, the side wall 3 has been taken off from the housing 1.
The flap 6 is closed in the state illustrated in FIG. 5.

[0045] Since, in the state illustrated in FIG. 5, the side wall no longer
exerts a force on the rocker 16, the spring 19 presses the rocker 16 and
therefore the switch housing 17 of the switching element 10 away from the
housing wall 14. Thus, the switching contact 15 of the switching element
10 opens despite the flap 6 being closed and, as in the second state,
interrupts a control signal generated by the switching element 10.

[0046] Advantageously, the control signals generated by the switching
element 10 may be transmitted to a monitoring device to monitor the
housing 1. This can be a local indicating device, for example, in the
form of an LED on the front side 2 which indicates whether the housing 1
has been closed properly.

[0047] Advantageously, however, the signal from the switching element 10
is transmitted to a device to remotely monitor the computer system 1. For
example, a switching output of the switching element 10 can be connected
to what is known as a system monitoring module, also known as a baseboard
management controller (BMC), of a server computer. The system monitoring
module then permits remote monitoring of the computer system from a
central monitoring computer via a network so that, for example, a system
administrator can detect remotely whether anyone is making an
unauthorized attempt to access drives of the computer system or to open
the housing 1 without authorization.

[0048] Although housing has previously been described with reference to a
specific arrangement having a housing with two housing openings, it is in
principle also suitable for use in other housings, in particular having
more than two housing openings. Even in this case to manage with only a
single switching element for monitoring the opening state of all the
housing openings, a suitable mechanical coupling between each of the
housing openings to be monitored and the common switching element should
be provided, so that mechanical OR switching is produced.